WO2007085965A2

WO2007085965A2 - Methods and systems for delivering digital content

Info

Publication number: WO2007085965A2
Application number: PCT/IB2007/000542
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jani-Mikael Kuusisto; Jarno Vehmas; Antti Takaluoma; Ilkka Kansala; Kari-Matti Varanki; Matti Koivu; Raimo Korhonen
Original assignee: Nokia Corporation
Priority date: 2006-01-25
Filing date: 2007-01-25
Publication date: 2007-08-02
Also published as: GB0601528D0; WO2007085965A3

Abstract

A system (10) is described for delivering digital content to a user and comprises a substrate (2) having a code (3) recorded thereon, and one or more mobile units (4) including a code reader (5) for reading the code (3) on the substrate (2) , data storage means (6) in the mobile unit (4) adapted for pre-storing in association with respective codes (3) one or more first items of digital content (7i) , decoder means (8) for decoding the code (3) read by the reader (5) , means (16) for selecting a said item of digital content (7i) dependent upon the code (3) , and means (9) for outputting said selected item. The system (1) also includes means (10) for supplying said first items of digital content (7i) to said mobile unit (4) for pre- storage in said data storage means (6) , and means (11) remote from said mobile unit (4) for storing a plurality of second items of digital content (12i) associated with different said codes (3) . The mobile unit (4) has downloading means (13) operable for downloading to the mobile unit (4) one or more of said second items of digital content (12i) dependent upon the decoded code (3) to enable said second items of digital content (12i) to be output by the mobile unit (4) so that said mobile unit (4) may output to said user both said pre-stored items of digital content (7i) and subsequently said second items of digital content (12i) following the reading of the corresponding code (3) .

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DELIVERING DIGITAL CONTENT

This invention relates to methods, apparatus and systems for delivering digital content to users, particularly to users having a mobile digital device, such as a mobile telephone or other handheld unit.

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing.

In one embodiment of the invention a system 1 for delivering digital content to a user comprises : (a) a substrate 2 having a code 3 recorded thereon; (b) one or more mobile units 4 including a code reader 5 for reading the code 3 on the substrate 2, data storage means 6 in the mobile unit 4 adapted for pre-storing in association with respective codes 3 one or more first items of digital content 7i, decoder means 8 for decoding the code 3 read by the reader 5 , means 16 for selecting a said item of digital content 7i dependent upon the code 3 , and means 9 for outputting said selected item, for example to a user; (c) means 10 for supplying said first items of digital content 7i to said mobile unit 4 for pre- storage in said data storage means 6; and

(d) means 11 remote from said mobile unit 4 for storing a plurality of second items of digital content 12i associated with different said codes 3 ; and

(e) said mobile unit 4 having downloading means 13 operable for downloading to the mobile unit 4 one or more of said second items of digital content

12 dependent upon the decoded code 3 to enable said second items of digital content 12i to be output by the mobile device 4.

Accordingly, the first part of the digital content associated with a given code 3 is pre-stored in the mobile unit 4 and the second part of the digital content associated with the code 3 is remotely stored and available for downloading to the mobile unit 4 when required. Preferably, the second part of the digital content associated with a given code 3, namely the second item or items of digital content 12i, are substantially larger than the first part of the digital content associated with the code, namely the first item or items of digital content 7i pre-stored on the mobile unit 4. In this way, the totality of the digital content associated with a given code 3 can be very substantially larger than could be conveniently or practically stored on a mobile device 4.

This splitting of the digital content associated with a given code 3 between a pre-stored first part on the mobile device 4 and a second part remotely stored has substantial advantages. In particular, since the or each first item of digital content 7i is pre- stored on the mobile unit 4, it is available for substantially immediate delivery to the user in response to reading the code 3 on the substrate 2 without the user having to wait for downloading of part or all of the digital content from a remote location such as a remote server 11. The user accordingly may be provided with instant or substantially instant gratification following the reading of the code 3 by the code reader 5.

The invention also extends to each of the following components individually and independently:

The substrate 2 of feature (a) above having a code 3 recorded thereon; The mobile unit 4 of feature (b) above;

The supply means 10 for the first items of digital content 7i of feature (c) above,-

The remote means 11 of feature (d) above arranged for storing the second items of digital content 12i.

Each of the components of the system of the embodiment of the invention defined above may take any of a number of different forms.

The substrate 4 may have any one or more of a plurality of different forms. For example, it may be of sheet form, such as paper or plastic, may be comprised in one or more pages of a book, magazine or other article to be read; it may comprise a label attached to a product such as a bottle; it may comprise the wall of a housing or container or it may comprise packaging.

The code 3 may be recorded in or on the substrate 2 in any of a variety of different forms. For example, it may be a barcode which may be two-dimensional or three-dimensional, it may be optically, electrically, or magnetically or readable in any other way. For example, it may be readable by infrared light, ultraviolet light, a laser beam, a capacitive sensor or an electromagnetic sensor. Preferably, the code 3 is recorded in a way in which it is invisible, or substantially invisible, to the human eye.

The code reader 5 provided on or in the mobile unit 4 may accordingly be adapted for reading codes in one or more different forms, for example one or more of the above identified forms. Further, the code reader 5 may comprise an optical character reader in which case the "codes" may comprise ordinary words or ordinary phrases in a human language, such as the English language, recorded on or in the substrate 2.

The code reader 5 may be constructed as an integral part of the mobile device 4. Alternatively, the code reader 5 may be a separate unit from the mobile device 4 that is connectable thereto by any suitable means, such as a plug and socket, a cable or an optical or wireless connection.

A practical system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, may comprise a number, especially a large number, of said mobile units 4. In this case, the means 10 for supplying the first items of digital content for pre-storing in the mobile units 4 may operate so that each of a plurality of said mobile units 4, or all of them, are supplied with the same said first items 7i. Alternatively, different mobile units 4 or different groups of mobile units 4 may be supplied with respective different said first items 7i. The decision on which said first items 7i are supplied to which said mobile units 4 or said groups of mobile units 4 may be controlled by an instruction input by human operator at a control station for the system 1. Alternatively, the decision may be automatically generated in response to control signals derived from profile data relating to activities which have been performed by or utilising the mobile unit 4, in particular user profile data. Such profile data may be derived from the codes 3 which have been read, over a period of time, by the code reader 5 in the mobile unit 4.

The means 10 for supplying the first items of digital content for pre-storing in the mobile unit 4 may comprise means 17 for transmitting said items to the mobile unit over a wireless link, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, a mobile telephone network or any other means. Alternatively, it may be adapted to supply the digital content by a wired connection. As a further alternative, it may comprise a memory unit containing the first items of digital content 7i. The memory unit may, for example, be provided with the substrate having the code 3 or codes thereon. Alternatively, the first items of digital content 7i may be supplied to the mobile unit 4 in dependence upon any of a variety of events, such as the mobile unit 4 entering a particular area or zone within which the supply means 10 is active. Further, initiation of the supply of the first items of digital content 7i to the mobile unit 4 may be effected automatically or in response to an act of the user, such as by the user causing the code reader 5 to read a pre-storage activation code 14 which has been pre-stored on a substrate 2 in a public location, such as on the casing of a vending machine or on any other device. Thus, the invention also extends to substrates 2 of any form having stored therein or thereon a pre-storage activation code 14 for initiating the supply to said mobile unit 4 of said first items of digital content 7i. The downloading means 13 may be arranged to download the second items of digital content 12i automatically, in response to reading of the code 3 or after a delay period, for example, or alternatively may be arranged to effect a downloading only in response to a user inputting a downloading command to the mobile unit 4.

The mobile unit 4 itself may take any of a variety of different forms. For example, it may be a mobile telephone, in which case the downloading of the second part of the digital content 12i may be effected over the mobile telephone network 15. Alternatively, the mobile unit 4 may be a game console in which case the downloading of the second part of the digital content may be effected over a computer network 16 with which the game console communicates . As a further possibility, the mobile unit 4 may be a music player such as an MP3 player, in which case the downloading of the second part of the digital content may be effected by reading into the player the contents of a digital recording such as a CD or by downloading the second part of the digital content from a computer network 16 such as the Internet. In these cases, the downloading of the second part of the digital content 12i may be performed by the user sometime later than the time at which the code 3 on the substrate 2 has been read by the code reader 5.

It will be evident to the person of ordinary skill in the art that the computer network 16 may include a mobile telephone network 15.

The invention accordingly provides very substantial advantages in the delivery of information to a user. For example, if the substrate 2 comprises a magazine which is being read visually by a human user, the user may cause his mobile unit 4 to read code 3 recorded in the substrate 2 and substantially instantly obtain an initial relatively small amount of further information related to what he is reading, which initial further information is pre-stored in the mobile unit as said first items of digital content 7i. In addition, the user may after a short period be provided with a very large amount of further information related to what he has been reading, as a result of the large amount of further information being downloaded, in the form of said second part of said digital content 12i, from the remote location 11.

The invention may be put to a wide range of different uses. For example, one further use may comprise permitting the user to build up a substantial volume of final information by accumulating that information in sections over a period of time, with each section comprising the said first part 7i and the said second part 12i as described above. Thus, to assemble all of the sections of information, the different said codes 3 would be associated with different sections and said different codes 3 would be read at different times by the code reader 5. For example, these different codes 3 may be incorporated in successive editions of a periodical, or in labels or patches of products, such as containers of beverage or other consumables, manufactured and/or marketed at different times so that the user would obtain each successive section of information at some point after each said patch becomes available.

Although in the embodiment described above, the digital content has been divided into two parts, one of which is pre-stored on the mobile unit 4 and the other of which is remotely stored, it is possible, in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, to incorporate a portion of the digital content into the code 3 itself. In this embodiment, therefore, the digital content is divided into three parts, one of which, preferably the smallest part, is stored in the code 3 itself, another part of which is pre-stored in the mobile unit 4 and is preferably larger than the part stored in the code itself, and a third part remotely stored which can be substantially larger than the part stored in the code 3 and the part pre-stored 7i in the mobile unit 4 or substantially larger than those parts combined. The amount of digital content which can be stored in the code 3 itself will be dependent upon the nature of the code 3.

Although the invention has been described above in terms of a system 1 having a number of components, the invention also extends to a method of making available digital content utilising one or more of said components and to methods of outputting digital content to a user utilising one or more of said components .

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that available technologies may be used for implementing the components of the system as described above. Accordingly, it is not necessary to describe those technologies in detail. Insofar as embodiments of the invention described above are implementable, at least in part, using a software-controlled programmable processing device such as a digital signal processor, microprocessor, or other processing device, data processing apparatus or computer system, it will be appreciated that a a computer program for configuring a programmable device, apparatus or system to implement the foregoing described methods and devices is envisaged as an aspect of the present invention, the computer program may be embodied as source code and undergo compilation for implementation on a processing device, apparatus or system, or may be embodied as object code, for example. A skilled person would readily understand that the term "computer" in its most general sense encompasses programmable devices such as referred to above, and data processing apparatus and computer systems .

Suitably, the computer program is stored on a carrier medium in machine readable form, for example in solid- state memory or magnetic memory such as disk or tape, in particular CD-ROMs and DVDs . The computer program may be supplied from a remote source embodied in the communications medium such as an electronic signal, radio frequency carrier wave or optical carrier waves . Such carrier media are also envisaged as aspects of the present invention.

Although illustrative embodiments of the invention have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments. As such, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. Furthermore, it is contemplated that a particular feature described either individually or as part of an embodiment can be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments, even if the other features and embodiments make no mentioned of the particular feature. This, the absence of describing combinations should not preclude the inventor from claiming rights to such combinations.

Claims

1. A system for delivering digital content to a user comprises :

(a) a substrate having a code recorded thereon;

(b) one or more mobile units including a code reader for reading the code on the substrate, data storage means in the mobile unit adapted for pre-storing in association with respective codes one or more first items of digital content, decoder means for decoding the code read by the reader, means for selecting a said item of digital content dependent upon the code, and means for outputting said selected item;

(c) means for supplying said first items of digital content to said mobile unit for pre-storage in said data storage means;

(d) means remote from said mobile unit for storing a plurality of second items of digital content associated with different said codes; and

(e) said mobile unit having downloading means operable for downloading to the mobile unit one or more of said second items of digital content dependent upon the decoded code to enable said second items of digital content to be output by the mobile unit so that said mobile unit may output to said user both said pre-stored items of digital content and subsequently said second items of digital content following the reading of the corresponding code .

2. A system according to claim 1, in which the substrate is of sheet form.

3. A system according to claim 2, in which the substrate comprises a page of a book or magazine.

4. A system according to claim 2, in which the substrate comprises a label .

5. A system according to claim 4, in which the label is attached to a physical product.

6. A system according to claim 1, in which the substrate comprises part of a container.

7. A system according to claim 1, in which the substrate comprises part of packaging.

8. A system according to any of claims 1 to 7, in which the code is readable optically and the code reader comprises optical code reader.

9. A system according to any of claims 1 to 7, in which the code is readable electrically and the code reader comprises an electrical code reader.

10. A system according to any claim 9, in which the code it is readable capacitively and the code reader comprises a capacitive code reader.

11. A system according to any of claims 1 to 7, in which the code is readable magnetically and the code reader comprises a magnetic code reader.

12. A system according to any preceding claim, in which the code is provided on the substrate in a manner in which the code is substantially invisible to the human eye.

13. A system according to any of claims 1 to 11, in which th.e code comprises text in a human language and the code reader comprises an optical character reader.

14. A system according to any of claims 1 to 13, in which said mobile units and said means for supplying said first items of digital content are operable such that each of a plurality of said mobile units is supplied with and pre-stores the same said first items of digital content .

15. A system according to any of claims 1 to 13, in which said mobile units and said means for supplying said first items of digital content are operable such that said first items of digital content pre-stored in a first group of said mobile units are the same as each other; and such that said first items of digital content pre-stored in a second group of said mobile units are the same as each other but different from the first items of digital content stored in said first group .

16. A system according to any preceding claim, including means for storing user profile data and means for causing said supply means to determine the content of said first items of digital content supplied to said mobile unit based at least partly upon said user profile data.

17. A system according to claim 16, including means for generating said profile data dependent upon the codes read by the code readers .

18. A system according to any preceding claim, in which said supply means is operable to supply said first items of digital content over a wireless communication link.

19. A system according to any preceding claim, including means for initiating the supply of one or more of said first items of digital content to a said mobile unit for pre-storage therein in response to a predetermined event relating to said mobile unit.

20. A system according to claim 19, wherein said predetermined event comprises detecting the presence of said mobile unit within a predetermined zone.

21. A system according to claim 19, wherein said predetermined event comprises the code reader reading a pre-storage activation code.

22. The system according to claim 21, including a plurality of said pre-storage activation codes located in a plurality of different locations, said supply means being adapted to determine the content of said first items of digital content dependent at least partly upon which it said pre-storage activation codes is read.

23. A system according to claim 21 or 22, in which the or at least one of the pre-storage activation codes is carried by a vending machine .

24. A system according to any preceding claim, in which said supply means includes a plurality of memory units each individually linkable to a said mobile unit and each containing one or more of said first items of digital content.

25. A system according to any preceding claim, in which said downloading means is operable to download at least some of said second items of digital content automatically following reading of a said code on a said substrate.

26. A system according to any preceding claim, in which said downloading means is operable to download at least some of said second items of digital content in response to a user input command following reading of the said code on a said substrate.

27. A system according to any preceding claim, in which one or more of said mobile units comprises one or more mobile telephones.

28. A system according to any preceding claim, in which one or more of said mobile units comprises a game console .

29. A system according to any preceding claim, in which one or more of said mobile units comprises an

MP3 player.

30. A system according to any preceding claim, in which one or more of said mobile units comprises a CD player.

31. A system according to any preceding claim, operable to supply to at least one of said mobile units a plurality of different sections of a body of information at different times in response to said code reader reading successive different codes at said different times .

32. A system according to claim 31, in which said successive different codes are provided on substrates made available in different time periods .

33. A system according to claim 32, wherein at least some of said successive different codes are provided in different editions of a periodical.

34. A system according to claim 32 or 33, wherein at least some of said successive different codes are provided in different batches of a manufactured product.

35. A system according to any preceding claim, in which a further portion of said digital content is incorporated into the code on the substrate and the mobile unit is operable to output said further portion following reading of said code on said substrate.

36. A system according to claim 35, in which said mobile unit is operable, following reading of a said code incorporating a said further portion of said digital content initially to output said further portion to said user, thereafter to output to said user one or more of said first items of digital content corresponding to the code which has been read, and thereafter to output to said user one or more of said second items of digital content corresponding to the code which has been read.

37. A mobile unit including a code reader for reading a code on a substrate, data storage means in the mobile unit adapted for pre-storing in association with respective codes one or more first items of digital content, decoder means for decoding the code read by the reader, means for selecting a said item of digital content dependent upon the code, and means for outputting said selected item; said mobile unit further comprising downloading means operable for downloading to the mobile unit one or more of second items of digital content dependent upon the decoded code to enable said second items of digital content to be output by the mobile unit so that said mobile unit may output to a user both said pre-stored items of digital content and subsequently said second items of digital content following the reading of the corresponding code.

38. A substrate operative in a system according to any one of claims 1 to 36, said substrate having a code recorded thereon representative of at least one of said first items of digital content, and said substrate further comprises said means for supplying said first items of digital content to said mobile unit for pre-storage in said data storage means wherein said first items of digital content comprise at least one item of digital content corresponding to said code recorded on said substrate .

39. A substrate according to claim 38, wherein said means for supplying said first items of digital content to said mobile unit for pre-storage in said data storage means comprises a memory module storing said at least one item supported by said substrate.

40. A substrate according to claim 38, wherein said means for supplying said first items of digital content to said mobile unit for pre-storage in said data storage means comprises a wireless transmitter for transmitting said at least one item stored therein to a said device supported by said substrate.